Germans, 4/13.

With Berlin Alexanderplatz screening through Sunday at MoMA - Vadim Rizov, by the way, writing at the Reeler, finds the whole experience "a brilliant pain in the ass, a mostly rewarding slog" - a few related items.

Though Ralf Schenk's overview of the vast yet leisurely paced series at the Arsenal in Berlin, Written on the Wind: Gruppenbild mit RWF, is in German, you might be interested in the general idea. Basically, alongside films by Fassbinder, they'll be screening films by his associates, films that influenced RWF, even films he simply happened to quite like. The series runs on through mid-summer.

More recently in the Berliner Zeitung, Schenk previews the Pasolini retrospective that begins tonight at the Lichtblick-Kino and runs through May 2. Also: Knut Elstermann reviews Ulrike Franke and Michael Loeken's documentary on the effects of globalization, Losers and Winners.

Shooting for Volker Schlöndorff's adaptation of Donna Woolfolk Cross's bestseller, Pope Joan, with Franka Potente pencilled in for the lead, has been indefinitely delayed, reports the Berliner Morgenpost. The probable problem: John Goodman is said to have agreed to play a 9th century pope, then backed out; now he faces a $3 million lawsuit.

The 53rd International Short Film Festival Oberhausen is set for May 3 through 8.

Meanwhile, it's official: The Lives of Others, opening in the UK today (and reviewed by Peter Bradshaw in the Guardian; Ryan Gilbey in the New Statesman; Anthony Quinn in the Independent; Sukhdev Sandhu in the Telegraph, where Sheila Johnston talks with Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck; James Christopher in the Times; and Derek Malcolm in the Evening Standard), has made more money in the US than any German film since Das Boot. Der Tagesspiegel reports.

Also: Nina Hoss, who won a Silver Bear at the Berlinale for her performance in Christian Petzold's slow-burning wonder, Yella, is taking on the title role in Max Färberböck's adaptation of the diary Anonyma.

It's still hard out here for a German filmmaker, reports Ole Tangen Jr for Deutsche Welle - and in English.

Steven Bach, author of Leni: The Life and Work of Leni Riefenstahl, writes in the Los Angeles Times: "Still alive when I began writing about her (she died in 2003 at the age of 101), Riefenstahl invaded my sleeping hours and (to paraphrase Ernst Lubitsch) did to my slumbers what her Führer did to Poland. Writing about her required me to immerse myself in a life of formidable strengths and frailties, and into the dark heart of one of the most brutal and dishonest epochs in recent human history. Thus do dreams become nightmares."

And Kate Connelly reports in the Guardian on a tiff between Marlene Dietrich's 77-year-old daughter, Maria Riva, and Universal that has delayed the release of a DVD box set of 18 films featuring "the only world star that Germany has ever produced," as one representative of the estate puts it. "The lesson? Next time you consider falling in love again, just make sure you have written permission."

Posted by dwhudson at April 13, 2007 8:29 AM